Hosea 8:12

I have written to him the great things of my law,.... Which was given by Moses to Israel at the appointment of God, in which were many commands, holy, just, and true; a multiplicity of them, as the

I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.

I have written: some read it in the future, and by way of question, Shall I write? but most read as we, in the perfect or past tense, I have written, by Moses first, by other prophets afterwards; the law was given to them, as well as to the two tribes. Great things; for their importance, weighty; for their excellency, precious; and for multitude of precepts, counsels, and directions, sufficient; my law had all this in it for their conduct in all righteousness towards God and man. But they, all these things which I have written, were counted as a strange thing; Israel looks on them as nothing to them; they are a distinct kingdom, and have a distinct establishment, their laws are now become unpracticable to us, and we have, by the wisdom of our governors, other laws established for our worship; let Judah keep to theirs, we will keep to our laws; after two hundred years’ desuetude, would it not be madness to introduce Judah’ s laws, and innovate all in Israel? Thus they contemned the excellent things of God’ s law, as if they were nothing concerned in them. And thus all their sins at last become incurable diseases, which nothing but utter destruction of the sinners can put an end unto.

Hosea 8:12 I have written to him the great things of my law, [but] they were counted as a strange thing.Ver. 12. I have written to him the great things of my law] magnalia legis; great things of the law, there are also minutula legis, small things of the law, Matthew 5:22; both must be looked to: for though the civilian say of his law, De minutis non curat lex, The law takes no notice of small faults; yet it holds not true of the law of God, which is spiritual, and must be kept as the apple of the eye, Proverbs 7:2, and observed in every point and part, nay, in every punctilio and particle thereof. But to come to the words; Ephraim could not plead ignorance of God’ s mind, for their many altars and superstitions, Deus enim iure quaerat et queratur, for God might very well say and complain, as Proverbs 22:20, "Have not I written for thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge?" and in the verse next before, "I have made known (my mind) this day to thee, even to thee." So here, "I have written," sc. by my penmen and secretaries, "to him" chiefly, and for his better direction in my service, that he might walk therein by rule, and not at random, "the great things," or excellent documents (the multiplicity or multiformity, saith the Chaldee) "of my law," or of my wise doctrine; Proverbs 13:14, which taketh in the gospel too, that law of Christ, Galatians 6:2. But they were counted as a strange thing] As not pertaining to them, as that wherein they were little or nothing concerned, as the narration of foreign affairs. Whereas men should read and regard the Holy Scriptures as they do the statutes of the land; holding themselves as much concerned and intended as any other; threatening themselves in every threat, binding themselves in every precept, blessing themselves in every promise, mingling the whole word with faith in their hearts, and resolving upon the obedience of faith; as knowing that these are verba vivenda non legenda, words to be lived, not read only; and that they should indwell in us familiarly, and yet richly, Colossians 3:16, and we should be as inwardly acquainted with them as any man is with his sister, or nearest allies, Proverbs 7:4. All this the rather; First, because God is the author of the Holy Scriptures, both matter and words are his, 2 Peter 1:21; "he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began," Luke 1:70; and he guided their hands in writing the Bible. How dare Papists then say that they wrote it iniussi without command from God. Secondly, because God hath written his law for us, for our behoof and benefit, Romans 4:23; Romans 15:4. The Scripture is God’ s Epistle to us, saith Gregory. It "is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths," saith David, Psalms 119:105.

(12, 13) The rendering should be, though I write for him a multitude of my precepts. The tense “I write” is imperfect, and represents the continuous process—the prophetic teaching as well as the ancient Mosaic law. In the wild lust for a foreign religion the pure and spiritual Mosaic worship and the religious influence of prophecy had been forgotten. It seemed something “strange;” as Christ’s cross and claims have been accounted strange by so-called Christians.

Verse 12. I have written to him the great things of my law] I have as it were inscribed my laws to them, and they have treated them as matters in which they had no interest.

12. I have written to him] Auth. Vers, here follows the Targum and the Peshito (the Septuagint and the Vulgate give the future), but it is more idiomatic (see p. 36, not[56] to render in the present—I am wont to write. The prophet is fully conscious that the divinely given laws under which Israel lives (or ought to live) were not formulated once for all in the Mosaic age, but grew up in different ages. Thus understood, the passage is an important authority for the existence of a legal literature before the Pentateuch became canonical. But another rendering is grammatically possible, ‘Though I wrote unto him’ (my law by myriads, i. e. in myriad precepts). [56] te The Targum and Aben Ezra, followed by the Authorized Version, render ‘I have written’ (better, ‘I wrote’). The tense is the imperfect, which is sometimes used in highly poetical passages where past occurrences are referred to; see Driver, Hebrew Tenses, § 27 (1) (â). Such a use of the imperfect would however here be isolated, nor is the passage in a poetical style. We must therefore reject the rendering of Auth. Vers., and with it the theory that the prophet refers simply and solely to a body of Mosaic legislation. In fact, when Moses is referred to by Hosea, it is as a prophet and a leader of the people, not as a legislator (Hosea 12:13).the great things of my law] The expression in the Hebrew, however we understand it, is remarkable and somewhat harsh. All difficulty would we removed if we might suppose the omission of a letter and a transposition; the phrase would then run, ‘the words of my law.’ The Hebrew Bible however gives 1, in the margin, ‘the multitudes of my law’ (Vulg. multiplices leges meas), which is adopted by Auth. Ver., and 2, in the text, ‘the myriads (or, the myriad precepts) of my law.’ The word rendered ‘multitudes’ is questionable, since it occurs elsewhere only in the singular, and there is here no apparent occasion for a plural. ‘The myriads of my law’ is a bold expression, but this reading is generally preferred. ‘My law’ may be understood to imply that, though Jehovah’s will was made known ‘by divers portions’ (Hebrews 1:1 R. V.), yet these ‘portions’ when fitly joined together made a whole. This was certainly the feeling of those Jewish Bible-students who affixed the vowel-points; but, as Hosea is thinking of the multiplicity of the laws, rather than of their unity, some have thought that we should rather read (altering one point), ‘my laws.’ We can estimate the multiplicity spoken of from the Pentateuch, whether this work was known to Hosea in anything at all like its present form or not. We must remember, however, that the laws to which the prophet alludes are concerned, not with rites and ceremonies, but with civil justice and the applications of a plain but religiously sanctioned morality (comp. the so-called Book of the Covenant, Exodus 21-23).

I have written to him the great things of My law - Literally, “I write.” Their sin then had no excuse of ignorance.

6. From Israel was it also [“is even this”] — What? Evidently the calf of Hos 8:5. In its establishment Jehovah had no part; it is the work of Israel; therefore the former has cast it off.